It is known that there are four logically possible divisions concerning letters: either their individual instances can be eternal—in which case their simultaneous existence must also be possible—or their individual instances cannot be eternal, but their types can; or neither their individual instances nor their types can be eternal.

As for the fourth division—that their individual instances are eternal but their types are not—no rational person holds this view. Under either of the two suppositions, their simultaneous existence is either possible or impossible. Thus there are five divisions.

Furthermore, if simultaneous existence is possible, their continued existence is either possible or impossible. The position attributed to the Karrāmiyyah entails that both their individual instances and their types originate in time, while allowing for their simultaneous existence and their continued existence after originating. This is one position among several.

In contrast, some maintain that letters must originate in time and cannot continue to exist, either allowing for their simultaneous existence or denying its possibility.

Those who maintain that their type must be eternal, but not their individual instances, may or may not affirm the possibility of their simultaneous existence.

People disagree concerning Allah’s speaking to His servants: does it consist merely in creating perception in them, without any renewed act of speaking on His part, or must there be a renewed act of speaking? There are two positions on this among those who identify with the Sunnah and others, including the followers of Abū Hanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, and others.